Rand Paul's Domestic and Foreign Policy Advisor

by John M. Curtis
(310) 204-8700

Copyright April 13, 2015
All Rights Reserved.

              Announcing for president April 7, 52-year-old first-term U.S. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) thinks he has an ace-in-the-hole when it comes to his foreign and domestic policy:  His 79-year old retired congressman father Ron Paul.  Speaking about wasteful government spending and costly foreign intervention, Rand shows the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, allowing his eccentric 12-term former congressman father to influence his foreign and domestic policy.  Rand’s views on both foreign and domestic policy parallel the “libertarian” views of his father whose three campaigns for president [1988, 2008 and 2012] showed more oddity and morbid curiosity than serious presidential consideration.  Rand hopes he can avoid his father’s extremist legacy, espousing way-out views outside mainstream U.S. politics.  Rand’s closely held views of his father present red flags in the campaign.

             Writing an op-ed for MSNBC, Ron Paul put on full display more the same foreign policy crankiness that won him support among the paranoid fringe of American politics.  During his three presidential runs, Ron Paul hammered away at popular conspiracies related to the Federal Reserve Board, Military Industrial Complex and his parochial interpretations of Constitutional Law.  To Ron—and now Rand—the Constitution morphs into a kind of bible from which narrow interpretations dictate foreign and domestic policy.  Rand’s opposition to Obamacare, Medicare, Medicaid or other government entitlements stem from his narrow read of the Constitution, saying almost nothing about social welfare spending.  Both Pauls believe that the Constitution only permits spending on national defense, not the current welfare state that’s emerged over the last 100 or so years.

             Rand mirrors his father’s paranoia about the Military Industrial Complex:  Ripping the country off of precious tax dollars.  Both Pauls rant about excessive government spending, wanting to abolish the Internal Revenue Service, replacing it with a flat tax that would greatly reduce the government revenue.  To Rand and Ron, putting the government on a lean diet of greatly reduced tax revenue would have draconic domestic and foreign policy consequences, namely, the government would have to scale back spending on foreign and domestic programs.  Both Rand and Ron believe that the hawks in Congress, like Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), whip up Cold War hysteria about Russia to justify more military spending or beefing up NATO.  Rand and Ron think that Germany spending $500M on 100 “Leopard” tanks to repel a possible Russian ground invasion is entirely unjustified.

             Handing defense contractor Raytheon a check to refurbish the U.S. nuclear bunker under Cheyenne Mountain in Colorado is further proof, according to the Pauls, of excessive government military spending.  Both Pauls think it’s outrageous to whip up Cold War hysteria for the purpose of justifying excessive military spending.  Neither Rand nor Ron think the Russian March 1, 2014 annexation of Crimea and subsequent takeover of the Donbass region of Southeastern Ukraine should be any concern to U.S. foreign policy.  Despite pleas of NATO countries like Poland, Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania about a possible Russian ground invasion, both Pauls think events in Ukraine and Eastern Europe are all concocted by the Military Industrial Complex.  Rand and Ron see no justification for building a new NATO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium. Both believe NATO should have been disbanded after the Cold War.

             Ron Paul told MSNBC that the real enemy is not Russia.  “No, the real enemy is the taxpayer.  The real enemy is the middle class and the productive sectors of the economy,” insisted Ron, showing the kind of non-sequiturs leaving fair-minded folks questioning his lucidity.  Rand believes this father’s kooky views on the U.S. economy stemming from the so-called Austrian school of economics, believing all evils stem from former President Richard Nixon taking the U.S. off the gold standard in 1971.  Ron warns of an economic apocalypse due to the Federal Reserve Board’s printing trillions of dollars to bailout the U.S. economy.  Both Pauls opposed all government bailouts and would have let the U.S. banking and auto industries go broke during the 2007-08 financial collapse.  Without decisive Fed action, the U.S. might have faced another Great Depression.

             Called isolationists by their critics, both Pauls define the limits of government spending by what’s written in the 239-year-old U.S. Constitution.  Like strict religious constructionists that want no deviations from the Bible, the Pauls see no justification for government spending beyond what’s authorized in the original Constitution.  Calling the new “Red Scare” a concoction of the Military Industrial Complex, both Pauls ignore Russia’s evisceration of Ukraine and threats against former Soviet satellites seeking a better way of life by joining the European Union and NATO.  “We must not be fooled by believing their lies,” said Ron, referring to the Defense Industry, ignoring what’s obvious to almost everyone:  That Putin’s Russia shows no signs of ending its aggression.  For Rand’s backers, like the Republican National Committee, they need to know his closest foreign and domestic policy advisor.

 About The Author

John M. Curtis neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news.  He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma


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